We're long gone from the days when the most popular Snapchat filters were the simple, adorable puppy dog face and the iconic early 2010s rainbow-vomiter. Much like other social media companies, Snapchat is diving deeper into AI and releasing new generative AI-powered video lenses for its premium users, parent company Snap said Wednesday.
The announcement of the new filters isn't what's noteworthy, since any aspiring developer can use Snapchat's Lens Studio to create and share AR filters. What's interesting is that these new lenses are powered by Snap's own in-house generative AI video models. Rather than augmenting something that already exists, like many filters do, the lenses are using generative AI to add completely new objects to your videos and animate those objects.
Three new AI filters are available now as part of the launch: a raccoon filter and fox filter (which create and add animals to your shot) and a spring flowers filter, which is a zoom-out feature that reveals a bouquet of flowers. It's a step forward for a social media company that's shown itself to be invested in AR and AI.
The new filters are available to folks on Snapchat's premium plan ($15 per month). Paying for a premium version of Snapchat might seem unnecessary, but people who are already subscribed may have an interest in taking advantage of Snap's AI tools. The platform has added -- and paywalled -- a number of AI tools in the past few years. Snap's AI chatbot, powered by ChatGPT, is available to everyone, but if you have a paid subscription, you can customize it. Generative AI lenses like these are also part of Snapchat Plus' premium plans.
Snapchat is one of the only social media companies that also has smart glasses (alongside Meta, with its Ray Ban smart specs). The compatibility of the glasses with the Snapchat app on phones is one thing that sets Snap apart from its smart glasses competitors, CNET reviewer Scott Stein noted. But the design is unpolished, Stein wrote: "The Spectacles in their current form are chunky and much odder than any glasses I'd ever put on my face."
The release of the new AI lenses is another example of how the integration of AI across social media is ramping up. Meta flooded Instagram and Facebook with its Meta AI when it was released last year, and it continues to use the public content from its US users to train its models. Google teased its AI video capabilities with a newly released AI video background generator on YouTube Shorts. TikTok, despite its many recent legal challenges, also has introduced new AI avatars for creators.
For more, check out our top picks for AI image generators and all the AI inside the new Photoshop iPhone app.
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